TidBITS#1222/05-May-2014
========================
Issue link:
If you’ve been waiting for an update to the MacBook Air, wait no
longer. Apple has refreshed the diminutive laptops with slightly
faster processors and a $100 price drop. Mozilla has also overhauled
the venerable Firefox Web browser with a fresh new look and
synchronization service, and AgileBits has updated 1Password to
integrate the company’s new Watchtower service for identifying sites
vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug. If you’ve heard about how iOS 7
doesn’t encrypt email attachments properly, it’s true, but Adam Engst
and Rich Mogull explain why you probably shouldn’t worry about it.
ComiXology, after being purchased by Amazon, has dropped in-app
purchases from its popular iOS app; Josh Centers explains why this
could be a blow to the superheroes. Finally, Michael Cohen has an,
umm…interesting entry for FunBITS this week: “Venice Under
Glass,” an iBooks Author art theft mystery featuring a teddy bear
cast. Notable software releases this week include Mailplane 3.2,
Default Folder X 4.6.5, and OpenOffice 4.1.
Articles
2014 MacBook Air Offers Better Performance for $100 Less
iOS 7 Email Attachment Vulnerability Real but Limited
Redesigned Firefox 29 Adds Sync Service
1Password 4.4 Updated with Watchtower Service
Explaining the ComiXology In-app Purchase Debacle
FunBITS: Bears in Boats Fighting Crime
TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 5 May 2014
ExtraBITS for 5 May 2014
------------ This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by: --------------
* READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS by becoming a member today!
Check out the perks at
Special thanks this week to Patrick Inhofer, Gregory Neutra, Thomas
Hofstetter, and Bob Leedom for their generous support!
* CrashPlan is easy, secure backup that works everywhere. Back up
to your own drives, friends, and online with unlimited storage.
With 30 days free, backing up is one resolution you can keep.
Your life is digital; back it up!
* Updated! PDFpen for iPad 1.7: Designed for iOS 7, faster, and
better-looking. Edit your PDFs anywhere. Sign contracts, make
changes, fill forms, and more. All while you’re on the move.
Syncs via iCloud and Dropbox.
* Fujitsu ScanSnap Scanners — Get on the path to paperless bliss!
Convert double-sided documents to PDF with the one-button ScanSnap.
Scan documents, business cards, and receipts, and eliminate
paper piles from your desk. Visit us at:
---------- Help support TidBITS by supporting our sponsors ------------
2014 MacBook Air Offers Better Performance for $100 Less
--------------------------------------------------------
by Josh Centers: , @jcenters
article link:
While the just-released new models of the MacBook Air don’t boast
changes along the lines of dramatic battery life improvements of
last year’s models (see “Apple Releases Longer-lasting MacBook Air,
Faster AirPort,” 10 June 2013), or much-desired Retina displays,
they do feature small performance improvements and a $100 price drop
across the board.
Both the 11- and 13-inch models have replaced last year’s 1.3 GHz
Intel Core i5 processor with a 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5 (which jumps to
2.7 GHz via Turbo Boost). As far as we can tell, that’s the only
functional change.
Interestingly, Apple now rates the 11-inch MacBook Air as being
capable of up to 9 hours of iTunes movie playback (up from 8), and
the 13-inch model as having up to 12 hours (from 10). Those numbers
are higher than in last year’s models despite the battery technology
remaining the same; the change is likely due to how Mavericks
offloads more video processing to the graphics processing unit (see
“Apple Previews OS X 10.9 Mavericks,” 10 June 2013)
Optional improvements remain the same as before, so the MacBook Air
models can be configured with more storage (512 GB for $300 —
available only for 256 GB base models), a faster 1.7 GHz dual-core
Intel Core i7 processor (for $150, and Turbo Boost can kick it up to
3.3 GHz), and 4 GB more RAM to bring the total to 8 GB (for $100).
Also remaining the same as last year’s models are the form factor,
connectors, and Intel HD Graphics 5000 graphics processors.
But prices have dropped by $100, so the 11-inch MacBook Air now
starts at $899 for 128 GB of flash storage and $1,099 for 256 GB of
storage, while the 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $999 for 128 GB and
goes to $1,199 for 256 GB.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
iOS 7 Email Attachment Vulnerability Real but Limited
-----------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst: , @adamengst, Rich Mogull:
article link:
Security researcher Andreas Kurtz has identified a vulnerability
that leaves email attachments downloaded by iOS 7’s Mail app
unprotected by Apple’s Data Protection technologies. In short, data
protection enhances the built-in hardware encryption by protecting
the hardware encryption keys with your passcode. Apple specifically
notes that this “provides an additional layer of protection for your
email messages attachments, and third-party applications.”
Apple has confirmed the vulnerability officially for us, and says it
will fix it in a future update, but such a fix didn’t make it into
the recent iOS 7.1.1 update.
**How Data Protection Works** -- Data Protection ensures that even if
a bad guy gains physical control of your device, he can’t access
protected files without knowing your passcode, even if he can break
the rest of the iOS device’s security. This is especially useful to
thwart attackers (or law enforcement) who will connect to a device
and use techniques to extract a copy of the entire file system,
after which they’ll attempt to crack it offline. If you don’t enable
Data Protection by configuring a passcode, your iOS file system is
encrypted in a way that is easy to circumvent by tethering your
device to a computer.
Adding a passcode engages both additional hardware security to
protect your device from unapproved physical connections, plus it
encrypts application data storage (including email) using both your
passcode and a hardware key that’s both unique to your device and
nearly impossible to remove or copy. Even if someone has a complete
copy of your file system they must brute force both of these codes
together to see your files, which is nearly impossible to do off the
device.
The alternative is to try to brute force your passcode _on_ the
device (through a tethered connection to a computer), but the
encryption chips are designed to slow down this kind of attack to
make it far less effective. In fact, it’s nearly impossible if you
have a passcode longer than 6–8 characters. Data Protection is
extremely effective, although older iOS devices (before the iPhone
4S and iPad 2) lack some of the special hardware and are thus more
vulnerable.
**Limitations to the Attack** -- Although Kurtz says that he was able
to access the filesystem using “well-known techniques,” these
techniques require technical know-how and some of the tools are
compatible only with the iPhone 4 and earlier, as mentioned. Plus,
we’re already in the territory of the attacker needing full physical
access to the device, so this isn’t the sort of thing that could be
used broadly via malware or a network connection.
An attacker either needs your passcode (in which case they have
everything anyway), or he needs a jailbreak that works without a
passcode, allowing him access to the file system. That’s how Kurtz
was able to attack an iPhone 4. It’s unclear how he was able to
reproduce on an iPhone 5s and iPad 2 running iOS 7.0.4, since more
recent devices running iOS 7 aren’t susceptible to a jailbreak
without the passcode. It’s possible that Kurtz had already
jailbroken his iPhone 5s and iPad 2, so they weren’t as protected as
a normal device would be. The bug means that email attachments still
aren’t encrypted on those devices, but there isn’t a way to get to
them.
Regardless, the practical upshot is that unless you receive highly
sensitive information in email attachments and are at risk for being
targeted in person by those interested in your data, there’s little
to worry about here. Enterprise admins will want to alert users
still relying on the iPhone 4, since email attachment data on those
could be exposed if an attacker were to gain physical access.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
Redesigned Firefox 29 Adds Sync Service
---------------------------------------
by Agen G. N. Schmitz:
article link:
1 comment
Much like the 29-year-old who feels the need to get his or her life
in order before the dreaded 30-something tag is applied, Mozilla has
released Firefox 29 with a refreshed look and new strategies to deal
with adulthood, including an overhauled synchronization service and
new customization tools.
Firefox’s redesign is a bit reminiscent of Google Chrome, with tabs
placed closer to the top of the browser window and non-active tabs
fading into the background to emphasize the active tab. The
Bookmarks button has also moved and now produces a slimmer view of
your bookmarks.
Taking another design cue from Chrome, a Firefox menu button (three
stacked horizontal lines, sometimes called a hamburger button) now
resides at the far right side of the toolbar, providing quicker
access to basic browser controls, preferences, printing, and
managing add-ons. At the bottom of the popover you’ll find the new
Customization button, which enables you to add and move icon buttons
within the Firefox menu or on the toolbar. (If you miss the full tab
titles at the top from the previous versions of Firefox, you can
click the Title Bar button to bring them back.)
Functionally, the most significant change is Mozilla’s new Firefox
Sync service, which uses the recently announced Firefox Accounts
service to synchronize bookmarks, saved passwords, browsing history,
and open tabs across multiple computers and mobile devices, all with
end-to-end encryption. The previous synchronization pairing method
that required entering three sets of alphanumeric codes has been
replaced by the more modern username/password combination offered by
Firefox Accounts.
If you update to Firefox 29 on one Mac that has already been paired
to an older version of Firefox on another computer, synchronization
using the previous account credentials will continue to work. Our
testing confirmed that bookmarks, history, and passwords continue to
be synchronized between different versions of Firefox on different
computers.
However, you need to create credentials for a new Firefox Account if
you want to sync Firefox on another computer with a new installation
of Firefox or one with a previously unpaired version of Firefox.
Additionally, while Mozilla notes that the older version of Firefox
Sync will continue to work with your previously paired computers,
it’s unclear how long it will be supported, so it might be best to
get ahead of the curve and set up a Firefox Account.
You first have to unlink Firefox from your old credentials. This
decoupling occurs in Preferences > Sync, where you first click
Unlink This Device below the Device Name field. Then, from the same
Sync preference pane, click Create Account to set up your new
Firefox Account credentials.
After verification is sent via email, your new Firefox Account sync
services become active. But you’re not done yet. You also need to
update all of your previously paired computers to Firefox 29 (plus
update any Android devices to the most current version of Firefox
Browser for Android), and then sign in using your new Firefox
Account credentials.
Firefox 29 is a free download from Mozilla (56.1 MB), and it
requires Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later. Check out this blog
post (or the full release notes) for details on additions to
Firefox’s developer tools.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
1Password 4.4 Updated with Watchtower Service
---------------------------------------------
by Agen G. N. Schmitz:
article link:
AgileBits has released 1Password 4.4, integrating its free,
Web-based 1Password Watchtower service into the password management
utility. Created shortly after the Heartbleed exploit was made
public (and mentioned in the comments of “The Normal Person’s Guide
to the Heartbleed Vulnerability,” 9 April 2014), Watchtower checks
Web sites to determine whether they are vulnerable to the Heartbleed
bug. With this new built-in feature, 1Password automatically checks
Web sites associated with your Logins to alert you if the sites are
(or were) vulnerable, and if you should now update the password for
any given Login. The Web version of Watchtower remains available.
Watchtower is turned off by default in 1Password, but you can
activate it easily by clicking the new Watchtower item under the
Security Audit section of the sidebar, and then clicking the Enable
button. (You can also control the feature in the new Watchtower pane
of 1Password’s Preferences window.) Once active, you can click
Watchtower under Security Audit to see a list of all Logins that are
potentially vulnerable.
Selecting a Login item displays its detail pane, where you’ll find a
red alert stripe at the top. (This is visible in the detail pane
within the 1Password app, as well as the detail pane that appears
when using either a browser extension or 1Password mini.) Click the
red stripe and then the Learn More link that appears to visit the
Watchtower Web site to see what action 1Password recommends. For
example, checking on Watchtower’s guidance for the Hotwire travel
Web site let me know that site certificates had been reissued on 18
April, 2014, so it was safe to update my password. Tracking whether
or not a site has been patched for the Heartbleed bug is important,
as emphasized in the Heartbleed article noted above:
Heartbleed is a live exploit, which means changing your
password on an unpatched site is _more_ likely to expose it
than doing nothing. Avoid vulnerable sites until you _know_
they are fixed, and then go back and change your password.
1Password updates Watchtower’s vulnerability data once per day, and
AgileBits further states that it will never transmit your Web site
information to its servers.
In addition to Watchtower, 1Password 4.4 also introduces a Greek
localization and improves conflict resolution during syncing (see
the full release notes). A free update for licenses purchased from
either the AgileBits Web site or the Mac App Store, the 1Password
4.4 release weighs in at 38.9 MB and requires OS X 10.8.4 Mountain
Lion or later. TidBITS members receive a 25 percent discount off the
normal price of $49.99 when purchasing 1Password from AgileBits;
start at your Member Benefits page.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
Explaining the ComiXology In-app Purchase Debacle
-------------------------------------------------
by Josh Centers: , @jcenters
article link:
1 comment
As I’ve said several times here in TidBITS, digital comics are one
of the killer uses of the iPad. Leading the way has been ComiXology,
which grew from a comic discussion site into the industry’s premier
digital storefront. Since launching iOS and desktop apps in 2009,
the company has sold over 6 billion pages of comics, 4 billion of
those in 2013 alone.
Despite the enormous success of superheroes at the box office, comic
books have flagged as an industry for years. Over the past three
decades, the industry has shifted away from newsstands to the
so-called “direct market” of niche comic book stores. Despite it
being a more profitable arrangement for the industry (unlike
newsstands, direct market retailers aren’t allowed to return unsold
stock), it relegated comics to specialty stores that attract
primarily existing fans. As a result, readership dwindled.
That is, until the magical combination of ComiXology and the iPad
revitalized the industry. With the tap of a button, you could buy
new issues, and you were prompted to buy the next issue as soon as
you finished the previous one. This made trying and buying comics
easy and discreet. No longer relegated to nerdy specialty stores,
new demographics were brought into the fold. Wired reported that in
the third quarter of 2013, 20 percent of ComiXology’s new customers
were female, which is impressive for a hobby that has in the past
appealed mostly to males.
Even better, and unlike what the rise of Amazon did to bookstores,
instead of hurting Friendly Local Comic Shops, ComiXology actually
helped them. Of the 20 percent of first-time ComiXology customers in
the fourth quarter of 2013, 64 percent also began buying print
comics, Wired found.
But all that may be about to change. On 10 April 2014, ComiXology
CEO David Steinberger announced that the company had been purchased
by Amazon. The online retail giant wasted no time in mixing things
up, and on 26 April 2014, ComiXology retired its existing app,
releasing a new one that did not offer in-app purchases. From now
on, ComiXology customers were told they would have to make purchases
via the company’s Web site, and were given a $5 credit to encourage
them to do so.
While to outside observers, this may not seem like a major change,
it could have enormous ramifications for the comic book industry.
**What’s the Big Deal?** -- You may be wondering what all the fuss is
about. After all, Amazon has never sold Kindle books through in-app
purchases, instead directing customers to its Web site. Similarly,
in 2011, Amazon subsidiary Audible.com pulled in-app purchases from
its iOS app.
But comic books are vastly different from novels and audiobooks.
Audiobooks can require 20 or more hours of listening, and a single
full-length novel might keep you occupied for weeks (unless you’re
our own Michael Cohen, who reads a handful of books every week). At
the risk of sounding disparaging, comic books are the snack food of
the literary world. Individual issues usually have around 20 pages
and take 15 to 20 minutes to read, at most.
Switching over to the ComiXology Web site adds significant friction
to the reading and buying process. Previously, once you finished an
issue, you could buy and read the next with a single tap (and
possibly your Apple ID password). Now you have to switch to a
browser, pull up the ComiXology Web site, log in if necessary, find
the next book, add it to your cart, buy it, and wait for it to be
added to the app. Not only that, but the ComiXology site is
aggravating to navigate on the iPad. Its touch response is jumpy,
and when I’m trying to slide lists of comics sideways I’ll often
inadvertently flick the page up, losing my place. None of these
issues is itself a big deal, but together they add a lot of friction
to the comic-buying process.
Removing in-app purchases eliminates one of the key advantages that
ComiXology had in the market, and the fear is that it will lead to a
massive drop in sales.
**Why is ComiXology/Amazon Doing This?** -- It comes down to the 30
percent cut that Apple takes from in-app purchases. In 2011 alone,
ComiXology brought in $19 million in revenue, and it has long been
Apple’s top grossing non-game app.
Ultimately, this change doesn’t hurt Apple too much, but:
* It provides an additional revenue stream for Amazon. That 30 percent
cut now goes into Amazon’s pockets instead of Apple’s.
* With comics being so popular on the iPad, it weakens the iPad
platform and strengthens the position of Amazon’s Kindle Fire
tablets.
* In theory, it leaves more money on the table for creators. More on
that in a moment.
**Is Apple’s 30 Percent Fee Greedy?** -- Alongside the debate about
ComiXology, the subject of Apple’s 30 percent fee has also become a
topic for debate.
With every digital purchase you make through an iOS app, whether
that’s a Netflix subscription, buying extra cars in a racing game,
or subscribing to Time through Newsstand, Apple takes 30 percent of
the asking price. This has led some digital retailers, like Amazon,
to bypass Apple entirely, even if it means less convenience for
customers and potentially lower sales.
Apple’s cut is standard industry practice among app stores (largely
because Apple set the standard). If you sell in-app purchases to
Android users through Google Play, Google also takes a 30 percent
cut. (As ComiXology removed in-app purchases from iOS, it added them
to its Android app, using a custom payment processor to bypass
Google’s fee, which Google, unlike Apple, allows.) Amazon takes the
same 30 percent cut from its own app store.
30 percent may not even be that bad, depending on what you compare
to. Things are even worse in the print comic world, where a retailer
will often take 47 percent of the cover price, not to mention the
large percentages that go to distribution and printing. ComiXology
itself takes 50 percent of the sale price, after payment fees.
The notable exception here is comic publisher Image, which sells
some digital comics directly and allows payment through PayPal,
which takes only 2.9 percent plus $0.30 on each transaction. For
whatever reason, most comic companies choose not to do business this
way, and Image also sells through ComiXology as a way of reaching a
larger audience. The lesson here is that 30 percent isn’t some
immutable economic law; transaction fees from most ecommerce firms
have long been under 10 percent, even from those that offer
full-fledged carts and top-notch customer support (like FastSpring,
Digital River’s eSellerate, and Avangate).
Nonetheless, because Apple has made the App Store the only way to
buy iOS apps and associated content via in-app purchase, numerous
businesses, including ComiXology before the buyout, see that fee as
an acceptable price to pay for in-app purchase sales generated by
increased user convenience. Beats Music, which resisted in-app
purchases when it launched near the start of this year, caved
earlier this month. Beats CEO Ian Rogers told Re/code that it’s hard
to get iOS users to subscribe without in-app purchases.
**Will This Hurt the Comic Industry?** -- Possibly, but it’s
impossible to tell yet, since the publishers are staying quiet.
However, industry legend Gerry Conway decried the change, saying,
“This is a disaster… [Amazon has] destroyed the future of digital
comics to give an advantage to their hardware platform — and, in
passing, to leverage their control of digital comics distribution to
do to comic book stores what they’ve already done to
brick-and-mortar book stores.”
Many have cheered Conway’s comments, but as comic expert Moises
Chiullan pointed out on TechHive, Conway hasn’t written comics in
years (he wrote a one-shot in 2011 and a six-issue limited series in
2009, but has been otherwise inactive since 1993). Comic author and
publisher Chris Roberson was more bullish than Conway, saying that
he has always encouraged fans to buy from the ComiXology Web site,
as the creators get more of a cut. “Now, readers will be spending
the same amount on their @Comixology purchases, but the creators
will be getting a bigger cut across the board,” Roberson tweeted.
In theory, Roberson is correct, but the question that remains to be
answered is if readers spend as much as they have been. I’m
skeptical.
I’m more worried for independents like Roberson than I am for the
big two: Marvel and DC. The unified ComiXology app listed boutique
titles alongside big names like Batman, X-Men, Superman, and
Spider-Man, giving them way more exposure than they ever would have
received otherwise. Without such prominent placement and easy
purchasing, I fear they will suffer the most.
Of course, for True Believers, a little inconvenience won’t stop
them from picking up the latest issues of their favorite titles. But
then again, driving to the nearest comic shop never deterred those
readers either.
**Aren’t There Alternatives?** -- Yes, and many of them come from
ComiXology itself. You see, ComiXology powers the individual stores
of Marvel, DC, Image, and other publishers, and those stores still
offer in-app purchases, at least for now, but I suspect that won’t
last long. Those purchases will sync with your ComiXology account.
Confusingly, Marvel offers two apps in the App Store: the
aforementioned ComiXology app and Marvel Unlimited, which offers
Netflix-like subscriptions and individual comics for sale (that you
must purchase outside of the app). I gave that app a rather poor
review in “FunBITS: Marvel Unlimited App a 97-pound Weakling,” (24
May 2013), and though it has improved substantially in the past
year, it still isn’t nearly as polished as ComiXology. However,
thanks to the awesome Marvel Unlimited Service ($69 a year for all
you want to read), it has become my primary comic app, in spite of
its warts.
Image has perhaps the boldest alternative out there, selling
DRM-free comics in multiple formats from its Web site. Unfortunately,
Image’s Web site is slow and cumbersome, and it can be difficult to
figure out which issues are available digitally.
Finally, you can buy digital comics from Amazon’s Kindle store or
the iBooks Store, but I don’t recommend it. Availability is spotty,
and comics don’t adapt well to formats and reading apps intended for
novels.
**My Two Cents** -- I think it was foolish for publishers to put all
of their eggs in ComiXology’s basket, where they had no ownership of
the store, nor a direct relationship with customers. Marvel was the
smartest of the bunch here, running its own subscription service
alongside ComiXology.
Frankly, if I were in the comic business, I would be panicking right
now. The last place any publisher or retailer wants to be is at the
mercy of Amazon.
If the publishers were smart, they would band together to create
their own unified storefront and subscription service, much as rival
TV networks joined forces to create Hulu. But I don’t see that
happening.
The two companies that could make this happen, Marvel and DC, are
now owned by Disney and Warner Bros., respectively, and their
interest in the comic business is secondary to the value of comic
book characters in film, television, and toys. A single superhero
blockbuster can bring in well over _one billion_ dollars, far more
than any comic book will ever generate.
I do think ComiXology’s move will hurt the industry in the short
term. I worry that we’ll return to the same old story that has
plagued comics since the 1980s: they’ll again be a niche purchase
for diehard fans and will have only minimal mainstream popularity.
The corporate-owned giants will survive, but independents will
suffer, and readers of all digital comics will buy fewer titles
because of the mediocre user experience.
Ultimately, I think the future of comic books, much like TV, movies,
and music, lies in subscription services like Marvel Unlimited.
Before Marvel Unlimited, it was almost impossible to catch up on the
decades-long X-Men story, due to cost and availability of back
issues and collected editions.
Even if Marvel Unlimited isn’t terribly profitable, and I suspect
that it isn’t, it leverages Marvel’s enormous back catalog to build
brand loyalty. As much as I love Batman, I haven’t bought a new
issue in years, and whenever I do buy a just-released comic, it’s
almost always a Marvel title, because that’s the universe I’m
invested in. If I wanted to pick up Batman, I wouldn’t even know
where to start.
In the end, comic books are the pebbles in the pond whose ripples
extend out to books, toys, TV shows, and particularly movies. The
more comics we read, the more marketable their fictional characters
and universes will become, and the more profitably they can be
extended into other media. ComiXology’s dropping of in-app purchases
may be bad idea in that regard, but it also throws into sharp relief
how subscription services like Marvel Unlimited can promote the role
of superheroes in popular culture.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
FunBITS: Bears in Boats Fighting Crime
--------------------------------------
by Michael E. Cohen: , @lymond
article link:
As the resident iBooks Author geek at TidBITS, I was not surprised
when Adam Engst forwarded me a press release for a “novel-length
work of literary fiction created with iBooks Author” and asked me if
I wanted to take a look. What I found was an interesting, if not
satisfying, mystery about art theft and chicanery in Venice: “Venice
Under Glass,” by Stephan J Harper.
**Plot and Execution** -- The tale is recounted by the protagonist,
one “Basil Baker” — a self-described “sleuth — a seeker of truth”
who has been summoned to Venice by his Uncle Clive to help solve a
rash of thefts of priceless Venetian glass from private collections
and museums — a civic catastrophe described by the press as _Il
Maladora di Venezia_. As Basil pursues various leads and clues, he
meets a wealthy philanthropist, an art historian / tour guide with a
black belt, a stereotypically clueless police inspector, a helpful
singing gondolier, a jet-ski-riding gang member who is also the
scion of a respected Venetian family, and a world-famous rap-music
artist. Along the way, the narrator recounts various historical and
cultural facts about the city known as the Queen of the Adriatic.
Oh, and all of the characters in the book happen to be teddy bears…
did I not mention that?
The plush ursine cast allows the author to make a number of mildly
amusing jokes, as well as to include some scenes that, were humans
involved, might be too violent for many readers — for example, one
character is brutally torn limb from limb. But fear no nightmares:
in this world, thread and stuffing replaces blood and guts, and even
the most severe injuries can be repaired by “the very best tailors
and seamstresses in Italy.” (At another point in the tale, one
character under interrogation has an eye brutally popped out — and
then sewn back on so the questioning can continue!)
Unfortunately, the mystery at the heart of the book is no mystery to
anyone who has ever read more than a half-dozen works in the genre,
and the writing is, at best, workmanlike. It reads, in fact, rather
like a juvenile genre offering on the level of Nancy Drew or The
Hardy Boys, although it does brandish a vocabulary that might
challenge many pre-teen readers… until they figure out that a tap
can bring up the built-in iBooks dictionary.
In fact, the book largely feels as though the author took his travel
journal and photographs from a trip to Venice and wrapped them in a
slender mystery, turning the stock characters (possibly based on
friends and acquaintances) into stuffed bears as an in-joke: Harper
has ran a “literate site for bear lovers” for years. Many of the
illustrations, in fact, look like travel photographs that he has
processed with digital filters for artistic effect.
The book also suffers from the bane of many self-published books:
the lack of a professional editor to eliminate the typos (for
example, straight quotes and “smart” quotes seem interchangeable in
this book), stylistic infelicities, and simple errors in wording
(“incredulous” does not mean the same thing as “unbelievable” —
really, it doesn’t!). An editor might also have helped improve the
book’s pacing and structure: the story opens slowly, floating like a
gondola adrift on the Grand Canal, and even when it picks up some
speed it never moves faster than a teddy bear toddle.
**As an Interactive Ebook** -- iBooks Author, which Harper used to
construct his ebook, provides a variety of well-designed templates,
navigational aids, and a collection of “widgets” — interactive tools
for presenting video, images, quizzes, 3D models, and other elements —
to aid in the construction of digital textbooks. (Let’s not forget
that producing interactive textbooks was the original purpose of the
software — see “Apple Goes Back to School with iBooks 2, iBooks
Author, and iTunes U,” 19 January 2012.)
Many of the app’s templates and widgets are also suitable for
non-instructional books, and a number of publishers have taken
advantage of that to produce non-textbook ebooks with it. What’s
more, because the app was designed to be used by non-publishing
professionals — specifically, by teachers, who generally have little
available time to master complex professional-level software
packages — it has also become a popular choice for authors who want
to self-publish attractive ebooks without having to purchase and
learn a complex publishing platform. iBooks Author is free and
relatively easy to master (and for a little help, see my book, “Take
Control of iBooks Author”).
Harper, fortunately, does not make the mistake that many
first-timers do when confronted with an app that provides lots of
features: that is, to use and overuse every one of those features
just because they are available. Instead, he limits himself mostly
to static artwork placed on the page, and occasionally indulges in a
short (2-5 second) video. He also makes use of iBooks Author’s
Gallery widget to provide samples of artwork featuring Venice
between the chapters of the novel. The result is a visually
attractive book that doesn’t overwhelm the reader with ornamental
overload and extraneous interactive clutter.
If anything, Harper has been too unambitious in exploiting iBooks
Author’s capabilities: for example, at one point he presents a
static map of Venice that could have benefitted from iBooks Author’s
Interactive Image widget, which would enable the reader to scroll
around the map and view it in close detail.
Nor, sadly, has Harper mastered how the Table of Contents of an
iBooks Author book can work: though he divides the novel into
several chapters, the book’s Table of Contents presents them as one
long chapter.
**Is It Worth It?** -- With a price of $2.99, the book is well within
the means of almost any potential reader. But, except for the
friends and fans of the author, it is not apt to appeal to adult
readers who aren’t instantly intrigued by the idea of a cuddly noir
novel featuring sentient stuffed animals. It might appeal to a
bright pre-teen who wants to learn more about Venice and who would
be entertained by teddy bear antics; however, not being a member of
that demographic segment, I can only hazard a guess here.
Nonetheless, that such a book exists at all, and is published and
available for sale to millions of readers, encourages me: before the
advent of tools like iBooks Author and distribution channels like
the iBooks Store, such an exercise in self-publishing would have
been an expensive undertaking for an author. While “Venice Under
Glass” is hardly a masterpiece, it does demonstrate that writers can
now self-publish and distribute attractive books without descending
into penury.
And that is good news for the aspiring author stuffed inside all of
us.
----
read/post comments:
tweet this article:
TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 5 May 2014
----------------------------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff:
article link:
**Mailplane 3.2** -- Uncomplex has released Mailplane 3.2 with a
variety of improvements to the Gmail-specific email client. The
update now enables you to edit an attachment and then send the
edited document in a reply. It also adds support for inline images
(added via drag-and-drop, pasting, or using the Mail > Insert
command), automatically detects the correct inbox type setting for
your notifier (and ensures the tab count and notifier are always in
sync), adds support for custom notification sounds, ensures that new
email generated from Safari’s Email This Page no longer truncates
the URL, and avoids a crash when uploading an image in Hangout Chat.
($24.95 new, free update, 17.3 MB, release notes, 10.7+)
Read/post comments about Mailplane 3.2.
**Default Folder X 4.6.5** -- St. Clair Software has released Default
Folder X 4.6.5 with a new Duplicate command, which enables you to
copy a file or folder within an Open dialog. The Open and Save
dialog enhancement utility also fixes a bug that would freeze
OmniOutliner 4 when saving or exporting a file, as well as a problem
on OS X 10.9 Mavericks with Default Folder X’s Preview and Spotlight
windows. Additionally, the update adds the Command-Shift-C keyboard
shortcut to go to My Computer in file dialogs, ensures that Open
dialogs in NetNewsWire begin in the correct folder, accesses the
Desktop using Command-Shift-D, and correctly displays the first two
items in the Favorites menu when accessed from the menu bar. ($34.95
new, $10 off for TidBITS members, free update, 11.1 MB, release
notes, 10.6+)
Read/post comments about Default Folder X 4.6.5.
**OpenOffice 4.1** -- Apache has released OpenOffice 4.1, a
maintenance update with a variety of tweaks to the free, open-source
productivity suite. The release adds the capability to make comments
and annotations on text ranges (instead of solely at text
positions), improves editing of Input Fields by allowing
modification of content directly within the text area, improves the
interactive crop feature for use with all graphic object
transformations, and improves importing of images (through both file
dialogs as well as drag-and-drop). OpenOffice 4.1 now requires Mac
OS X 10.7 Lion and later. (Free, 163 MB, release notes, 10.7+)
Read/post comments about OpenOffice 4.1.
ExtraBITS for 5 May 2014
------------------------
by TidBITS Staff:
article link:
In ExtraBITS this week, Skype makes group video calls free to all
and Woz remembers writing his version of BASIC for the Apple I. We
learn just how shaky software is and why iPad sales are slowing
down. Also, Congress votes to remain clueless on tech, Office for
iPad gains AirPrint support, and we get an in-depth look at Google’s
self-driving car.
**Skype Makes Group Video Calling Free** -- In an effort to compete
better with Google Hangouts, Microsoft’s Skype has made group video
calling — previously available only to Skype Premium subscribers —
free for all Mac, Windows, and Xbox One users, with support for more
platforms slated for the future. In our use, Skype’s quality and
reliability has suffered over the past few years, and while Google
Hangouts has a lousy user experience for starting and joining calls,
it is far more stable than Skype once you get going.
Read/post comments
**Steve Wozniak on How He Wrote BASIC for the Apple I** -- To
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the BASIC programming language,
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has recounted how he wrote BASIC for
the Apple I from scratch. His primary motivation was gaming, which
he felt could spark a mainstream interest in home computers.
Read/post comments
**Software Is a House of Cards** -- Writer and programmer Peter Welch
has penned an amusing and terrifying essay called “Programming
Sucks,” which sheds some light on why so much software is unstable
and insecure. A choice quote: “Not a single living person knows how
everything in your five-year-old MacBook actually works. Why do we
tell you to turn it off and on again? Because we don’t have the
slightest clue what’s wrong with it, and it’s really easy to induce
coma in computers and have their built-in team of automatic doctors
try to figure it out for us.”
Read/post comments
**Why iPad Sales Are Slowing** -- The iPad was Apple’s fastest growing
product for several years, but sales have slowed, and analyst Ben
Bajarin offers a few possible reasons why. He focuses on the point
that, while they can do many things well, there’s little tablets can
do that a computer or smartphone can’t do as well or better. The
iPad debuted in 2010, which is often cited as the beginning of the
end of PC sales, but Bajarin notes that was also about the time
smartphones went mainstream, which might instead explain the decline
in PC sales.
Read/post comments
**Congress Votes to Remain Clueless about Technology** -- Congress is
ignorant about technology, by its own admission, and has voted to
stay that way. Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) introduced an
amendment that would have allocated $2.5 million to reboot the
Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), whose funding Newt Gingrich
cut in 1995. The OTA, founded in 1972, saved taxpayers billions by
recommending an overhaul of the Social Security Administration’s
computer system and convincing Congress to cut back the synfuels
program in the 1980s. Alas, Holt’s measure was defeated in a 164-248
vote. Now Congress will just have to go back to relying on lobbyists
for technical advice.
Read/post comments
**Office for iPad Gains AirPrint Support** -- A little over a month
after release, Microsoft has updated its Office for iPad apps to
1.0.1 with printing support via AirPrint. Other changes include
SmartGuides in PowerPoint to help with object alignment, improved
AutoFit in Excel to adjust the width of multiple rows or the height
of multiple columns, and bug fixes.
Read/post comments
**Google’s Self-Driving Car Takes to City Streets** -- In The Atlantic
Cities, Eric Jaffe shares his experience riding in Google’s
self-driving car as it takes to the city streets of Mountain View,
California. It’s a fascinating look at the technology underpinning
the 700,000 miles driven by Google’s fleet of self-driving cars. The
article is also sobering, because putting self-driving cars on the
road for consumers will take years, despite Google’s advances.
Nissan is aiming for 2020, but robotic car consultant Brad Templeton
says that the most advanced of the car manufacturers is Mercedes,
whose self-driving car project isn’t even where Google’s was in
2010. This could mean self-driving cars will take much longer to go
mainstream, or that the automotive industry is ripe for major
disruption.
Read/post comments
$$
This is TidBITS, a free weekly technology newsletter providing timely
news, insightful analysis, and in-depth reviews to the Apple
Internet community. Feel free to forward to friends; better still,
please ask them to subscribe!
Non-profit, non-commercial publications and Web sites may reprint or
link to articles if full credit is given. Others please contact us. We
do not guarantee accuracy of articles. Caveat lector. Publication,
product, and company names may be registered trademarks of their
companies. TidBITS ISSN 1090-7017.
Copyright 2014 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license.
Contact us at:
License terms:
Full text search:
Subscriptions:
Account help: